Please help us continue the Wayne Theatre’s 100th anniversary celebration with a magical afternoon of music featuring critically acclaimed soprano Penelope Shumate. Audiences are invited to choose their ticket price, ranging from $25 to $1926, with the highest level supporting the Wayne as a 100th Anniversary Sponsor. (1926 is the year the Wayne Theatre first opened as a theatre).

Featured on the cover of Classical Singer magazine, Penelope Shumate presents a concert showcasing her extraordinary versatility, with selections spanning classical repertoire, musical theatre, and jazz favorites.

Praised by The New York Times for her “bell-like clarity and surpassing sweetness,” Shumate has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and at David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

Her recordings, available on major streaming platforms, include works recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

She has performed internationally and throughout the United States and is also widely respected as a voice teacher, masterclass clinician, and presenter.\

Dr. Penelope Shumate

Praised by The New York Times for “bell-like clarity and surpassing sweetness,” The New York Concert Review for “sparkling coloratura perfection,” and in Opera News magazine for “sincerity and attractive lucidity,” Penelope Shumate’s New York City performances include twenty soloist appearances at Carnegie Hall in addition to her soloist appearances at David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Her recordings include “Messiah Refreshed” (Signum Records) recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “Kassandra” (Navona Records), “La pasión según San Marcos” (Summit Records), and “As the fireflies watched . . . chamber music of James M. Stephenson” (Klavier Records).

She is featured in the May 2025 issue of Classical Singer Magazine detailing her versatility as a performer and teacher of classical as well as contemporary commercial music vocal genres such as musical theatre and jazz. At the Classical Singer national convention in Chicago, she served as a presenter, Masterclass clinician and judge. She has performed internationally and throughout the US including appearances with Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Roanoke, Des Moines Metro Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Annapolis Opera, Opéra Louisiane, Opera on the James, Muddy River Opera Company, Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma Philharmonic, Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Heartland Festival Orchestra, Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Gateway Chamber Orchestra, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Distinguished Concerts International New York, Berkshire Choral Festival, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and the Kennett Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

Her professional opera role performances include Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Pamina and Papagena in The Magic Flute, Micaëla in Carmen, Laurie in The Tender Land, Violetta in La Traviata, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Musetta in La Bohème, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Hanna in The Merry Widow, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, among many others. Her professional concert soloist appearances include performing Messiah, The Creation, Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), Carmina Burana, Magnificat (Bach and Vivaldi), Te Deum (Dvořák), Symphony No. 2 and No. 4 (Mahler), Requiem (Mozart, Verdi, Fauré, Rutter), Dona Nobis Pacem, Stabat Mater (Mealor), Ein Deutsches Requiem, Elijah, Coronation Mass, and Dixit Dominus (Vivaldi), among others. She is an award winner with the Gerda Lissner Foundation, The American Prize, the MacAllister Awards, and the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition, among others.

As a presenter and Masterclass clinician she has been engaged by the National Opera Association, Classical Singer, the National Association of the Teachers of Singing, the College Music Society as well as numerous Universities across America. Her academic service at the University level includes many years of experience teaching voice, lyric diction, voice class, vocal pedagogy and literature as well as opera theatre.

She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from Louisiana State University. Last year, Dr. Shumate moved back home to Shenandoah Valley where she teaches voice and piano lessons in addition to continuing her active professional performance career. Visit www.penelopeshumate.com.

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Lise Keiter, Pianist

Pianist Lise Keiter has performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and she is active as a solo recitalist, collaborative artist, and soloist with orchestra. She has recently appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina, and her latest performance engagements have taken her to New York City, North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Idaho, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, South Carolina, and throughout Virginia, including recent performances with the Waynesboro Symphony, the Heifetz Institute and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.

Dr. Keiter is Professor of Music at Mary Baldwin University, where she also serves as Music Department Chair and Artistic Director of the Broman Concert Series and the Sunday Recital Series. She also teaches at Washington and Lee University.

Frequently in demand as a lecturer, adjudicator, and masterclass clinician, Dr. Keiter is active in many organizations, including MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) and CMS (College Music Society). Dr. Keiter is committed to furthering the education of young musicians and also maintains a studio of high school students.

Her students include numerous competition winners, and many have been accepted into prestigious music programs at colleges, conservatories, and graduate programs across the U.S. and in Europe. Originally from Charleston, Illinois, she has a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Master’s Degree and the Doctorate of Music from Indiana University.

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